Rainy Backache

That describes this morning well. Pinched nerves and crampy back muscles meet a torrential downpour.
Sent mom off to the vets with Molly kitty. Some sort of disease prevention shot (parvo?) all I know is it's like 70$ holy c**p! That cat better learn to kill mice soon.
What is it with these insane prices nowadays? Would anyone ever pay me 5$ an ear for corn? I know that biologically produced material is more expensive than chemically produced most of the time. But come on, vaccines are made in eggs. What's a dozen cost now $2.50? A little centrifuge time and a pass through an osmotic filter and suddenly that's $70.
Of course that's nothing compared to the profit margins to be had in the electronics industry. When I think of the 20$ worth of material in an iPod I always have to laugh.
And where do those huge profit margins go? Money is meaningless if not spent or invested. You'd think some rich CEO would stop by my farm and insist on paying me 5$ an ear for my corn just to get rid of the extra cash he or she is carrying around.

Sad news

About ten days before Christmas '05 I had an odd dream. I was bicycling past the house of a good friend and customer, Dave Kohout. Dave was standing in his front yard and waved at me as I rode by. He called out to me "Well, guess you won't be seeing me for a long time." and then in 3 or 4 kick jerky moves he seemed to shrink or diminish.
When I got up that morning I figured "Pifl, I'll surely see Dave even before we open this summer."
I just found out that Dave passed away on the 14th of December.
I'd only known Dave for about 5 years but he was always a pleasure to see. A true defender of the American dream and a soldier of peerless quality. Until that day we meet, shine on you crazy okra-eater.

First comment!

Yae! I got my first comment, and it was from someone I know. A big "boo-yah!" goin' out to Jesse Smith and his whole family. I wonder how he found my blog?
The steel is loaded and my back still works, so this day is going "swimmingly."
Hope you're doing as well or better.

What's great about Oregon?

This is why despite all the little problems, it's great to live here:
Click to
enlarge.

Good start to the day

Up early and even though my back still hurts from last week's work, I think it's going to be a good day.
Lots of strange disjointed dreams. Something about snow, more vehicle action. The only coherent scene was when I dreamt I was reading a story for a group of first graders. Weird! They were sure cute kids though. I think one of them might have been from another universe because she was really short and had purple speckles.
Today is another steel recycle day. Hope my back holds out. I'll try to be careful with the items I lift. And I'll wear my back brace this time too!
Have a great day.

Sunday: ineffective or relaxing?

Had big plans for the day, but barely did more than a little blackberry chopping. Didn't go welding, didn't discover the cure for all human maladies.
I did read quite a bit though. "An End to poverty", "The Eye of the World", "The one minute millionaire" and about 3 dozen random blogs. Just read a few chapters of each of those titles, not the whole book! I've read the wheel of time series before but some books are worth a second or even third pass.
I guess a relaxing Sunday will have to do instead of an effective one. I'll just have to make sure I'm extra effective tomorrow. Will set alarm for 6:20 and start the early farming program in earnest. Only about 150 days until we want to open.
Dad's making plans to get the onions sprouts started soon. Mostly sweets and reds. Maybe a few thousand spanish.

Easy Sunday morning

Frustrating but easy. Did recycles again today, the glass machine at Fred Meyer's was jammed so I went to Safeway instead. Going to the brother's shop for welding lessons later in the day.
Had pizza and black tea for breakfast.
Strange dreams last night. Partly the recurring one of driving my pickup which has been stripped down to a barely running vehicle which doesn't steer correctly. What is it with the dream-realm that it can't get driving down right? My vehicles always fishtail and swerve and generally drive like a wet noodle. Would the psycho-analyses reflect upon my need for control or lack thereof? The dream ended with me meeting up at Steve's once more with a group of familiar strangers for a chicken or turkey dinner. The women were all in the kitchen while we men sat around a white wicker coffee table. I didn't think I was still that sexist. The living room was small so that there was barely room to walk between the chairs and the coffee table.

Sudden raging downpour

Chased out of the fields by a really wild bit of weather. Doesn't show up any different than the rest of the rain on the radar image but around here it's about blowing sideways. The tarps are all flapping and the oak tree is swaying. Dancing to the wind. The birds have all hidden and anything small, light or loose has made a bid for freedom.
The temp is 47.8 and falling.

Saturday showers

Back and belly muscles still aching from the work of pruning grapes. Mostly it's the blackberries causing trouble. Today's work load will be gathering and hauling a load of scrap steel to the recyclers. It's strange for me to think that the scrap we take in here will be shipped to the new steel recycling plant in Mississippi where so many of my relatives live.
Still too wet in the fields to put up the big greenhouse.
Last night's dreams were strange but not as troublesome as usual. First I dreamt I was attacked by a large black dog which turned into a puppy when I knocked it down. Then when I tried to return the puppy to it's owners I found myself trespassing in a strange pasture nearby. After I got back on the right side of the fence (the puppy forgotten in the flow of dream) I managed to meet up with some people like at a party or family reunion. I was delighted by the sense of camaraderie even though I didn't recognise anyone in the crowd.

Friday errands done

Work begun. Or will be shortly. Rain hasn't arrived yet so I'll have time to prune after all. Also go to Bro's shop to do some welding.
The trip to town with Blind Gregory went smoothly. Greg's a great fella. Goin' blind, got multiple sclerosis and he still tackles the job of carpentry. Talk about courage.
And the man makes some great birdhouses.
Saw the cute neighbor lady at the post office. Geuss they had some serious damage from the irrigation ditch washing out behind her house. Bummer, wish I'd known. Not that I suppose there's much I could've done to help.
Everyone on earth be happy this instant!

Excellent day

Was a great day for pruning. Lost my self for hours in the task. Only pulled a muscle in my back once right near the end of the day from over-reaching. The sky was once more an ever changing region of wonderment but I managed to divert myself from it and stay on task, at least while I was pruning. Hope to have time next week to go out and roll up some wreaths from the left-over vines.
Tomorrow I'll be taking Blind Gregory to Medford for tools; so that plus the rain coming later in the day sort of shoots down anymore vineyard work until the rain slacks off later in the week.
Maybe I can summon the courage to boil up some agar and restart my plant tissue culture program. The last three attempts have met with little to no success. I'll be less creative in my formulations this time, stick to the tried and true methods.

Raven Fog

A hazy white mystery covers the land. Ravens caw to nature's random director.
The border between sky and land has been obscured and the boundary is open to those things which walk between our thoughts and perceptions.

Sky dream pruning

The most amazing clouds today. Pruning has gone well, though the blackberries do put up a fierce resistance. I will next gird myself with gauntlet of ogre strength and put my leathery hide to the task of ripping the spiny beasts loose from my good earth.

As I worked cutting and training grape vines the sky kept calling me away from my chore. Finally had to stop and come in for a cup of coffee.

The perennial seeds from Seymoure came in. So we will soon be sprouting a collection of new flowers, begonias, bananas etc.

Gathering courage

The weather has turned fairer. Still cloudy, windy and cold. But without rain to force me in I can pursue my idyllic labors beneath the wonders of heaven. To go forth in glorious battle with blackberry canes and grape whips. My clippers flashing with a force like lightening. My will power and muscle shaping the fate of the land.

Far easier to describe than to do. especially with my back still aching. But it should be good excercise to keep me flexible.

Afternoon errands

Back from the lovely, quaint little town of Rogue River. Jackson county has the most awesome library system. Rock on JCLS!
Had to run up to Blind Gregory's on the way home and give him a hand assembling and disassembling his table saw. Rock on Greg! Blind carpentry madness. Can't wait to see his next generation of bird houses. He's developing some excellent rainbow patina's on brass for their rooves.

Farmer's retreat

Uhg, my back is sore and it's raining. So I'm gonna be a lazy winter farmer today. All I have to do today is take some stuff to the storage barn and maybe clean up in the shop, small greenhouse or barn. Oh yeah, and take some books back to the library.

If I get ambitious I'll be writing up a 2005 nanotech round-up soon. A list of the top 5 mostly unheralded breakthroughs in 2005.

Working for a living

Ow! My back hurts. Spent the morning working in my brother's welding shop. Dad and I had to push the garden tractor onto the back of the truck and I got some stabbing pains in my lower back; muscles and a pinched nerve I'm sure. Oh, the simple life of a farmer. Wish I could afford a chiropractor. The pain is radiating to the front and down my leg so it's definitely a pinched nerve.

The mountains are lovely, draped with heavy fog banks that remind of pictures from Columbia and Peru.

Rain supposed to start again tonight. If it clears out enough later this week we'll put the big greenhouse up. I can't wait to get started on the cut flowers. We have several hundred 'mums to use for mother plants, I hope to have thousands to sell by summer. Also I'd like to try an experiment with some of the bulblets from our gladiolas. By starting them in January in the greenhouse I think I can get them to flower before the summer is out.

Information withdrawl

Man, this is the most information sparse time of the year. And there's nothing good on TV either. The sci-fi channel has a twilight zone marathon every new years, yawn. And no good movies either. I geuss "the media" as I call them figure everyone's too hung-over to care. Between that and cable or satellite rates (how come we have to watch ads on services we pay for?) it's enough to drive a person to steal videos and mp3s over the internet.

I Should Have Told You

Oh man, I like this website. It makes me happy to not have all that regret. Some of it's good stuff though, what a reminder.
I Should Have Told You

Old Year New Year

... It's all rain to me. Wow, what a 'possum pounder we're having again. Took mom into town to do the recycles, uhg. Wet damp and humid. The river is way down from its earlier flood but the parking lots were all full of RVers, giant puddles and pavement streams. It's bizarre like some sort of RV convention suddenly happened. It's easy to forget what a huge population lives in the RV villages along the Rogue.